6 Elements of a Clickworthy Adwords Campaign

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You may be limited by character length when creating new text ads in Google Adwords, but that doesn’t mean your imagination has to be limited as well.

There are endless possibilities for marketers and business owners who enter the realm of pay-per-click advertising (PPC) when it comes to gaining the attention of people searching on Google.

A typical text ad created in Google Adwords consists of the following:

A headline up to 25 characters

Two lines of descriptive text, each with up to 35 characters of text

A display URL

It’s not a lot of room to work with, but an effective and concise message can lead to more clicks, resulting in more conversions and ultimately, a greater return on your advertising investment.

How Does Adwords Work?

Let’s look at the three characteristics of an ad created in Google Adwords:

Headline

The first step towards creating a successful Adwords campaign is your headline. Your headline should scream “look at me!” Or, better yet, “click on me!” This is the line potential customers will ultimately look at first, so make it good. Utilize targeted keywords from the ad group in the copy=- these are the phrases that triggered your ad in the first place. A quick tip: Capitalizing The First Letter Of Each Word Is A Best Practice That Helps Your Ad Stand Out.

Description

This is your bread and butter in 35 characters or less. You wrote a headline specifically geared towards attracting customers and now it’s time to highlight the most important details of your ad. What are you offering that separates your company/product/content from the rest of the pack? Showcase it!

Display URL

A display URL is a customized link specifically tasked with attracting customers. This allows you to shorten your destination URL (the URL customers are actually being directed to when they click) to a more concise, attractive form. Many advertisers will use their domain (i.e. steadyrain.com) plus the service being advertised (i.e. www.steadyrain.com/ppc) as the destination URL.

Now that you have an understanding of the basic framework of an ad in Google Adwords, it’s time to optimize it for success. Remember, the number one goal of your ad’s existence is to drive customers to your website.

6 Tips for an Effective Adwords Campaign:

1. Highlight what makes you, you!Do you have a large selection? Do you offer free shipping? Do you have a 100% satisfaction guarantee? Featuring these product and/or company benefits in your ad will help you stand out and improve the likelihood of a prospect to click on the ad, convert and become a customer.

2.Do you have a special offer?Consumers love a great sale or an exclusive offer only you can provide. They also often need a little bit of a push to help make a decision. This is your opportunity to showcase exclusives and pull your customers off the fence.

3.Call for action!Just like customers need help down from the fence, a little nudging can be awfully convincing. Use strong verbs in your text. Tell your customers to call today, sign up or get a quote. Verbs inspire action, so be sure to use them.

4.Remember your Adwords keywords and put them to use.

The keywords you selected for your campaign are usually the words and phrases your customers Googled to find you, so why not entice them with more of what brought them to your ad in the first place? Search queries from customers are also bolded in your ad, so if what they search closely matches your headline and description…Bingo! They are more likely to click.

Plus, keywords have a direct impact on your ad’s Quality Score, a metric from Google measuring how relevant your ads are to the person who is viewing it. The Quality Score is calculated every time your keywords match a customer search. The higher your score, the lower your costs, and the higher your ad displays in the search results.

5.Play the match game with your landing page.The relevance of your landing page also impacts Adwords quality score. If you are advertising a special offer or service, make sure the page your ad links to (the landing page) contains the same promotions or products described in your ad. If it doesn’t, there is a high chance the customer leaves the website and takes his or her business elsewhere.

6.Cater to the mobile audience.Consumers are constantly using their smartphones to look for information on-the-go. They may already be in their car ready to make a purchase but are unsure of where to go. Free Adwords ad extensions for calling and location quickly inform consumers on the move. The location extension pulls up the device’s map application and sends the potential customer in the right direction, directly from your ad. The call extension allows the customer to use one-touch dialing to contact your business directly from your ad.

Utilizing these simple best practices is a great first step toward implementing an effective PPC campaign into your marketing strategy. Remember to be creative, concise and call customers to action. You know your products and services better than anyone, so share what your insights with your customers and select relevant keywords. In no time you will be driving more customers to your website and converting those clicks into all important sales.

Does your company still need help creating and managing a successful Adwords campaign? We are an Adwords Certified Partner ready to help your business meet its online marketing needs. To learn more, contact SteadyRain today.